Confessions of a former sportswriter

February 2011

There’s a small wall calendar on my desk, half vertical and half horizontal. We work in a great big open room. There are half-dividers separating most desks, about waist high, although some have barely any vertical surface above the desktop. That makes this calendar live like an L.

It’s a Mississippi Department of Marine Resources calendar. Kids submit their drawings and Jonah McCarra, age 11, is February’s winner. There’s a blue-and-yellow catamaran sailing past a bridge. It’s bright, and cheerful, under a partly cloudy but bright sky.

But there’s nobody on the sailboat. It’s a ghost catamaran. Was this a conscious choice by Master Jonah? Is it some cautionary tale about a post-apocalyptic world? Don’t let every die or boats will be left adrift.

Could it be some sort of public service announcement? Picture yourself out on the gorgeous water, bridge in the background, the wind puffing away at the sail and the flag atop the mast. You could be there! The great outdoors awaits!

Me, I think the home-schooled Jonah McCarra has chosen the blue to represent peace and yellow to represent joy. That catamaran is trying to get to East Egg, to see his dream girl, Daisy.